Wages Policy and Enterprise Bargaining In The Western Australian Public Sector

Abstract

The concept of enterprise bargaining causes particular difficulty for government in its role as an employer. Devolution of industrial relations decision making is consistent with the managerialist agenda which seeks to give more autonomy to individual departments. However, all governments seek to maintain financial control over their departments, particularly with respect to labour costs. In the case of Western Australia (WA), a further tension exists through the current government's pursuit of individual workplace agreements. In WA, the framework for enterprise bargaining (and for individual workplace agreements) is established through the government's wages policy and workplace bargaining guidelines. The paper uses case study material to examine the actual process through which enterprise agreements are reached. The tensions between central control of outcomes and ‘devolved’ bargaining processes are clear; the agreement reaching process at the agency level becomes a joint process of achieving compliance within centrally imposed constraints. While the wage outcomes were controlled, the workplace change outcomes were less clear.